DRIYING THE FIRST STAKE 



FOR THE 



CAPITOL AT LANSING 



BY REV. F. A. BLADES. 




DRIYING THE FIKST STAKE 



FOR THE 



CAPITOL AT LANSING 



BY REV. F. A. BLADES. 



F~5 7i- 



l\x exchange^ 
MAR 2 9 1915 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 



BY REV. F. A. BLADES, 



I have been requested to furnish your society with some pioneer rem- 
iniscences of Michigan. I have never thought that any of my particular 
early experiences were of sufficient consequence to call for recital, or be 
of more than a passing incident that might be called up in connection 
with something of modern times. One objection I have had and still have, 
that one has in reminiscences to refer so often to his own personality that 
it is "I," "I," until ego becomes '4t" of modern times. 

The incidents to which particular reference has been made, of my first 
visit to Lansing, occurred, I would now think, in the early part of the 
month of April, 1847. I think the bill for locating the capital where it 
now stands was passed in March, 1847. Before referring to that partic- 
ular event, I would say that my father immigrated from Western New 
York to the State of Michigan, reaching Detroit in May, 1835. As I re- 
member Detroit at that time, it seemed but a large village ; I do not now 
call to mind more than one or two buildings north of Jefferson avenue; 
still my observation might not have been correct, as I was then but a poor, 
sickly boy who had been condemned to die of consumption. My father 
took his immigrant wagon from the boat, and with such help as he could 
command put it together, and with goods loaded, and horses attached, 
the family started for Grand Blanc, Genesee county, Michigan, leaving 
Detroit at about nine o'clock in the morning. The first day revealed to 
us the longest mud hole that I had ever seen ; it reached from Detroit to 
a small log cabin, not far from where the log cabin now stands on Senator 
Palmer's farm. The inn was kept by a woman who came to be known as 
Mother Handsome. She was a homely woman, but she knew how to keep 
a hotel, and make everybody mind their own business and behave them- 



4 ANNUAL MEETING, 190S 

selves while on her premises. Seven miles v^^as this day's progress, and it 
was a hard day's work, and we were all tired out. It took two and one- 
half days to go from this place to Grand Blanc. What is now known as 
Woodward avenue extended, was then known as the ''Saginaw Turnpike," 
and was just being put through. Part of the way it had been plowed and 
scraped up in the center, but it was new and wet, and it was mud, 
"Michigan Mud." Michigan May rains furnished the water, and the im- 
migrants' wagons churned and mixed up the mud. This trip was always 
fresh in the memory of the Blades family, consisting then of William and 
Charlotte, his wife, F. A. Blades, the writer, and J. H. C. Blades, a law- 
yer of Flint, who died in early manhood, and two daughters — one de- 
ceased in Grand Rapids, the other living in Chicago. On reaching Grand 
Blanc we found an old Indian trading house had been reserved for us by 
a friend of my father, Mr. C. D. W. Gibbson. At first this was thought to 
be almost a Godsend, as we did not know but that we would have to live 
in the wagon, until we could build something. As I said before, it was 
an old Indian trading house, and the Indians had come to think they had 
acquired some right there, at least they made themselves so familiar that 
they would come and go at their own sweet will, and the result was that 
we were very soon invaded by a lot of wild Indians ; it was very embarras- 
sing, and my mother was terror stricken with our new friends, as they 
afterwards proved themselves to be. I will relate a little incident that 
serves to encourage humanity to try and do right. The Indians came in 
great numbers soon after our arrival at Grand Blanc on their way to Sagi- 
naw, I think to receive their annual payment from the government. Chief 
Fisher had a beautiful daughter about sixteen years old, and when they 
camped near our house that night they came to solicit some advice from 
the "white squaw," as they called my mother, and she went over and tried 
to persuade the chief to let the girl go home with her, and she would 
take good care of her. The next morning, however, she was sick, and as 
the Indians must go to Saginaw and get their money, my mother took the 
girl and cared for her with all the tenderness she could bestow upon her 
own child. When the chief returned she was very much improved and 
gave evidence of a speedy recovery, but the human sympathy of the white 
squaw for the Indian girl was never forgotten by that tribe. I remember 
something over a year after that, when Fisher and some of his brave 
hunters were passing, they called at the house, and every member of the 
family was sick with ague, some shaking with chills, others burning with 
the fever, and I alone carrying on the work of relief. Provisions were 
scarce ; there was not a pound of flour in the whole settlement, which con- 
sisted of four or five families within a radius of two miles, but we all ex- 
pected some parties home with some flour almost any day or hour. Fisher 
inquired for something to eat, and when told the condition of things, he 
gave an Indian grunt, and went away, but it was not very many hours 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 5 

before he returned with a saddle of venison, and for some time afterwards 
we had a call every few days from some of the Fisher Indians to know if 
we wanted anything. 

The fact was that the malaria that was curing my consumption was 
seemingly killing the rest of the family with ague and bilious fever. My 
health improved very fast, and it was not long before I was racing through 
the woods with my rifle to supply the table with food, and for a time the 
family depended as much on my rifle for their meat as your households 
now depend upon the market. The friendliness of the Indians gave me the 
companionship of some of the Indian boys, and some of the older men of 
the tribe took me along with them and taught me their art in stalking or 
tracking deer or bear. These Indians were the soul of honor according 
to their standard. If I wounded the game, and the Indians pursued it to 
the finish and secured it, he was as sure to bring me the skin as he got the 
game. My mark or bullet hole made on it gave it to me. The carcass 
was his. Possibly a little incident of this Indian friendship may interest 
you for a moment. I was married in September, 1846, to Miss Helen 
Brown of Grand Blanc. We had been lovers from childhood. In the fall 
of 1847, I was returning with my wife for a short visit to the homes of 
both our parents at Flint and Grand Blanc, coming out of the woods on 
the then unopened road a part of the way between Shiawassee county, and 
Flint, Genesee county, Michigan, we came into what was known as the 
Miller settlement. I had not seen any of my Indian friends for several 
years; on coming into the settlement we noticed several Indian ponies 
picking grass by the side of the road, but thought nothing particular 
about them until we were right in the midst of their owners, who were 
lying in the shade of the trees and fences. All of a sudden a stalwart 
Indian arose and gave a whoop that brought every Indian man and 
woman to their feet, and rushing up to the buggy where we were sitting, — 
my wife shivering from fright and alarm of what might come next, — the 
Indian grasped my hand and arm, and I was on the ground beside him. 
"Boo-sheu, boo-sheu, ne-con-nis?" (I do not know if this is the right spell- 
ing for these Chippewa words.) ''How are you, my friends?" It was 
Mash-quet, I think next in line for chief when Chief Fisher was gone, and 
such a demonstration of friendship I never had before or since ; he hugged 
me, and shook hands with me over and over again. Then he sent for his 
four wives and all his papooses, and my wife, recovering from her alarm, 
got out of the buggy and shook hands with Mash-quet and his whole fam- 
ily. Then he called all the Indian men and women about him and told 
them the story of the "white squaw" who cared for the sick Indian girl, 
and told them all if they ever had an opportunity to do me or mine a favor 
to do it. The interview over, wife and I got into the buggy and rode ofif. 
For a time there was nothing said, I was busy thinking of the past, then 
only a few years gone by, as my wife broke the silence by the remark, "If 



6 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 

you think you are likely to meet any more of your personal friends, I wish 
you would tell me a little in advance, for I would like to be prepared for 
such a reception." That was the last I ever saw of my Indian friends; 
still I cherish the memory of their friendship. I remember their gratitude 
for a little service rendered that puts to shame the exhibition of more 
pretentious civilization and religion. I have never forgotten Shake- 
speare's words, ''Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend." If the recital 
of these incidents shall inspire gratitude in any heart, either toward God 
or man, then I am more than paid for the etfort. 

The events of early pioneer life are ordinarily very tame ; they are only 
interesting as they magnify themselves when compared with the circum- 
stances of modern civilized life. I think the friendships of the early pio- 
neers were a little warmer and stronger than at the present time. I be- 
lieve that the first settlers of Michigan lived and got as much out of life 
as any people or any civilization in any epoch of the world's history. In 
making this statement I am not unmindful of the privations, the coarse 
and sometimes scanty fare of the early pioneers ; but then their life was 
simple, unpretentious; their fellowship in the family and neighborhood 
was hearty, whole-souled, overflowing with kindness, manifesting a desire 
to help rather than hinder. If a neighbor fell sick and ran behind in his 
work, the whole neighborhood would come together, sometimes men and 
women, the men to do the hard work on the farm like logging and clearing 
the land for sowing his fall wheat or gathering his harvest ; the wife or 
daughter came along with some knic-knacs for the table, which was set in 
the yard for dinner and supper, and to help along with the work, and it 
became a gala day, and helped in soul and body the poor, sick man. When 
an invitation had been extended to several families to come together for a 
dinner, which was quite frequent in the fall and winter time, as soon as 
the ladies got there they would put on aprons and turn in and help the 
good wife who was getting ready to entertain them. And while the din- 
ners were not such as they serve at the present time, with a great number 
of courses and variety of wines, still they were hearty, toothsome and very 
enjoyable, and the memory of them to-day is as pleasant as the memory 
of more sumptuous occasions in later life. Just think of a twenty or 
twenty-five pound wild turkey, fat and flavored with the nuts from the 
woods, and a ham or a saddle of venison, both done on a spit before the 
fire, but in the open air, watched every minute and basted at regular inter- 
vals ! The venison with large holes cut with the hunting knife, and then 
filled with strips of salt pork drawn into them, flanked by the vegetables 
of the season and "home made bread," and doughnuts cooked in fine bear's 
oil, and the lusty crowd, and sometimes the children's table on the side ! 
Talk about dinners and a dinner party; why, a man that is only about 
fifty years old, compared with those old pioneer days, hardly knows what 
a square meal or a "good time" is ! And the best of all is the heartiness 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 7 

of the fellowship. The old pioneers do not need your pity; no, not "a 
little bit." I believe that the young people in early pioneer days got as 
much out of life as do the young people of the present time. Fifteen or 
twenty boys and girls from sixteen to twenty years old would go six or 
eight miles on an ox sled to a party, and have a better evening's entertain- 
ment than could be had by a New York, London or Paris society party at 
|20 a plate. It was an ox sled and possibly two of them chained together, 
and straw thrown in; it was two or more feet deep, and every girl and 
every boy brought a blanket to protect them from the cold, and though 
the oxen moved slowly the party began as soon as the sled was full, and 
song and story and laughter made those old woods ring, and they ring yet 
as they echo back to-day the song and shout and laughter of those who 
have long since crossed the last river, I hope to mingle in eternal day. 
These parties were not pretentious. There was no latest fad in the gowns 
the girls wore ; there was not a tailor-made suit in the crowd. Some of 
those gowns were spun and woven at home in the log cabin, and made by 
"mother's own hands." They were shapely, simple and beautiful, and 
they covered the forms of bright, beautiful girls, full of spirit and life. 
The boys were of like pattern, strong, courageous and manly, not a mean 
streak in them, ready to work or play or fight as the occasion demanded. 
These were the boys and girls who have since made Michigan what she is 
to-day. These boys and girls, or their like all over the State, were the 
fathers and mothers of the men who, from 1861 to 1865, said to the dark 
proud wave of slave civilization, "so far but no further," and they, with 
comrades from the other liberty loving States, put a million of human 
bodies with bayonets in their hands as the breastwork that that proud 
wave of death and dishonor never surmounted. These boys and girls, 
their children and children's children, produced the civilization and made 
the happy homes of this day in Michigan. The suppers that those boys 
and girls sat down to had no half-dozen diflferent colored wine glasses at 
their plates. Oh, no! it was a plain, honest meal, produced by loving 
hands and eaten by innocent and happy humans, and when the supper 
was over the real fun began. Every flat iron or smooth flat stone that had 
been provided beforehand, and a hammer for each boy, was brought out, 
and every boy and girl separated in pairs, close in toucli and reach with 
the other pair near them, and baskets of black walnuts, butternuts, hick- 
ory nuts and hazel nuts were brought out, and the boy cracked the nuts 
and gave them to his partner girl ; she picked out the meats and put them 
in a saucer, and together they ate and divided with their neighbors, and 
it was wonderful how much they could eat! And then the apples and 
cider that had been kept sweet until then. But alas! how short these 
evenings were. We began to gather those loads about five o'clock p. m., 
and here it was nearly twelve o'clock, and there was a hustle and rush, 
and the patient, slow but sure going ox team was homeward bound, and 



8 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 

the old song or new story, and shout and laughter lasted until we were all 
home. Next morning found the boys down in the woods with ax in hand, 
chopping to clear the land for next fall's wheat sowing. 

Now, after this rambling prelude, let me say that in 1844, having re- 
jected a very tempting offer of a place and an interest in a dry goods 
house to be established in Chicago, or what was then the place where Chi- 
cago now is, I accepted an appointment in the old Michigan conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal church with the privilege of traveling on horse- 
back about three hundred miles, and preaching twenty-eight times every 
four weeks on an expected salary of |100 a year. The |100, however, did 
not materialize, only about $38. It was very seldom that I could sleep 
two nights consecutively in the same bed, but my wants were all supplied ; 
I lived with the people and was one of them. My first appointment from 
the old Michigan conference, in 1844, was Shiawassee circuit — Rev. R. G. 
Crawford, preacher in charge; F. A. Blades, junior preacher; J. W. Don- 
aldson, supply — a six weeks' circuit and three preachers, and if I remem- 
ber, twenty-eight appointments and very nearly three hundred miles on 
horseback to get around to the several appointments with the necessary 
travel to get to our stopping places for the night. Wolverton's school 
house, within three miles of Fentonville, was the most easterly appoint- 
ment; thence via Byron, Vernon, Shiawassee town, Corunna, Owosso, 
Dewey's, Bennington, Pitt's, Morrice, Perry, Shaft's, Fuller's in Ingham 
county; thence into Livingston via Rogers' school-house, Ramsdell's, 
Boutwell's and all the country within the circle. 

This is from memory of fifty years ago, but it seems to me I could go 
over the road to-day if the old woods and blazed trees were as I left them. 
The people were poor, but their hospitality was unbounded. Although 
suffering all the privations incident to pioneer life, and living in cabins, 
on coarse fare, and sometimes short even at that, the pioneer minister was 
always welcome. Nor was this hospitality confined to the members of the 
church, but every house was open to him. In the fifty years now passed 
since I first went to old Shiawassee I have met courtly people in all the 
great cities of this country, and enjoyed the hospitality of many, but none 
of them while sitting at luxurious boards could out-do the old Shiawassee 
pioneers in cordiality and warm-hearted, home-making hospitality. My 
colleagues. Rev. R. C. Crawford and Rev. J. W. Donaldson, were most 
genial, courtly. Christian gentlemen and my year of hard work passed 
pleasantly. I could fill a whole paper with incidents, but will only men- 
tion one as illustrating some of the early experiences in pioneer work. 

One day, I think some time in March, 1845, I was in a store in Corunna, 
and my attention was called to, and I was introduced to, a stranger and 
a new-comer in ''these parts." On inquiry I learned that early in the fall 
before some five or six families had gone into the wilderness and had been 
busy all the fall and winter in chopping the timber and preparing to burn 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 9 

the brush and timber preparatory to their spring crop. He urged me to 
visit them, and for direction I was told to follow the road as far as it was 
cut north from Corunna, and then find a certain oak tree marked on four 
sides, and then follow marked trees north, when I would come to a large 
beech tree, also marked on four sides, there turn to the left and follow a 
line of marked trees about two miles, when I would find an ironwood tree 
and certain witness trees near by, when I was again to turn north and 
keep on that line until I came to the settlement. I made an appointment 
to visit them, I think, the last Tuesday in April or the first Tuesday in 
May. The day appointed came around and about daylight I left my 
friend Kimberley's house and after, I think now, about three or four 
miles, I came to the end of the road as it was partly cleared out, and on 
looking carefully around found the oak tree, got my bearings and plunged 
into the woods, found all my tree marks, and about noon arrived at the 
settlement of five or six log shanties, as I remember them. I was most 
heartily welcomed, and arrangements had been made for worship, and 
some othet parties from other settlements of four or five miles from them 
had come in. The people came together and I preached to them as well as 
I could and then had a class meeting. I remember the testimony of one 
woman who had walked four miles, carrying a child about two years old, 
to attend the meeting, who said she had come because she wanted once 
more to worship with somebody as she had not heard a sermon or a prayer 
in over three years. We sang, preached and prayed and had what I 
thought then and think now a "good time." But after meeting came the 
embarrassment. Two of the men of the settlement had gone to Saginaw 
for some flour and tea and were two days past due, and there was not a 
loaf of bread or a pound of flour in the settlement, but there was plenty of 
maple sugar, a few potatoes and plenty fresh fish from the river, and I 
was just as happy as I have since been when dining at Delmonico's, New 
York. It was getting late and two young men piloted me out of the 
woods. I noticed that each one had a large bundle of hickory bark on his 
back, and as we went on they would lay down a little pile by a tree, and 
then another, and so on until, when we got to the road I had left in the 
morning, the bundles of bark were nearly all gone. I stayed with the boys 
until with flint and steel and a little dry punk they had kindled their fire, 
lighted their torches and started back into the woods, to replenish their 
torches from the piles of bark left on their way. I bade them good-bye, 
they going to the dense forest seeking their homes. I turned my face 
toward Corunna, and late at night found myself at my friend Kimber- 
ley's, and after a little refreshment found my room for the night. This 
was a day's work I have never forgotten, nor do I know that I have ever 
seen one of that settlement since. 

In the fall of 1846 my appointment was to Lyons Circuit, including 
Lyons, Ionia and Portland, and about as far east as Wacousta in Clinton 
2 



10 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 

county, and over in Ingham just below Lansing, and an appointment or 
two in Eaton county. 

In the winter of 1847 the legislature in Detroit resolved to change the 
location of the capital of the State of Michigan. The constitution adopted 
in 1835 fixed the seat of government at Detroit ; it also provided that the 
legislature of 1847 should determine where the permanent capital should 
be located. Hence the preparation for the fight of 1847 over the place. 

I see that Senator Scripps has been giving the public recently some in- 
teresting facts about the locating of the capital at and naming it Lan- 
sing ; he deals with the records. In what I have to say I deal with the 
unrecorded legends of the times. 

It was currently reported, and believed by many at that time, that the 
upheaving force to lift the capital from Detroit was a real estate deal in 
which a great many persons were involved, and it was believed by some 
that Detroit parties were largely interested. It was claimed by some that 
men having large land interests near Corunna were responsible for the 
move to get the capital from Detroit, and they thought they had the 
strength to locate it at Corunna, but there were other parties who kept 
very quiet as to where it should go, but were nevertheless active in the 
effort for its removal. The question once up, the struggle for its location 
became intense, and while nearly every village and town in central Mich- 
igan offered desirable places for it, the real struggle all the time in the 
deep water beneath the surface was between Corunna and what is now 
known as Lansing. The Corunna side claimed that the fight at first was 
between them and the Seymours (two brothers, one of whom was after- 
wards Governor of New York), who owned land adjoining the school sec- 
tion where the capitol now is, and some parties who were represented by 
Messrs. Bush, Thomas and Geo. Peck, who in those days were prominent 
men in Michigan. When these rival interests became reconciled on the 
plan of placing the capitol on the school section between them, they then 
became too strong for the Corunna crowd, and they were able to play the 
school interest for help, and hence it was located where it now is. The 
stories told of the masterful plays and manipulations of this fight were 
interesting and sometimes comical. I am only giving you the legends of 
the times immediately succeeding the events themselves, as they were told 
me by parties who were interested in the Corunna crowd and saw things 
from their standpoint. It was finally decided that the capitol should be 
built on this section of school land in the corner of Ingham county. News 
in those days did not travel as fast as it does now, but it got around that 
the capitol of the State was to be located in the wilderness, somewhere in 
Ingham county, so in the early days of April, 1847, when I went up to the 
eastern part of my circuit, I thought that I would go and see if I could 
find the ground that had been selected. I came up to a place that was after- 
wards known as "the lower town" of Lansing, but at that time known as 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 11 

Page's saw mill. It was a saw mill on the property that belonged to the 
Seymours. I stopped there, near to the supposed location of the eapitol, 
and went in and found an old gentleman by the name of Page, and a 
very pleasant family. I told him what my mission was, and he gave me 
certain directions following certain lines of marked trees by which I 
might find myself upon the school section indicated as the ground se- 
lected. At that time most of us were as ready to follow our way through 
the woods by the old marked trees and witness trees for the section cor- 
ner or quarter section corner as we are now by the roads. After follow- 
ing the direction given by the old gentleman, I reached a spot that was 
clearly in my mind within the lines that were designated as the place 
upon which the eapitol would be located. It was on a beautiful knoll in 
a dense wilderness. The outlook was grand and lovely beyond descrip- 
tion ; I never saw such a piece of timber before or since. I sat down on a 
log and was taking in the scenery, and remember well the thought that 
passed through my mind : "It is too bad to destroy such scenery as this ; 
too bad to build a babbling town and break this silence and mar this 
scene so beautiful and so grand." While sitting there I heard a noise ; it 
sounded as though it might be a bear or a deer, but a deer hardly made 
such a noise as that. I waited, and in a few minutes a man emerged from 
the shadow of the trees into the light ; as I remember him he was about 
six feet high and well proportioned. He saw me nearly as quickly as I 
saw him, and he was the first to break the silence by saying, "I think this 
is probably a mutual surprise ; it is oh my part ;" and I assured him that 
it was none the less so on mine. He asked me who I was, and I told him 
I was a Methodist minister looking for a congregation. "Well," he said, 
"it is a mighty poor show for a congregation." I asked whom I had the 
honor of meeting in this wild place. He said, "My name is Glen ; I am 
one of the Commissioners looking for a place to locate the State Capitol." 
I said to him: "Mr. Glen, do you take in this scene? Look how grand 
and how stately are those trees, and how they sway their branches to the 
wind. Look upon this scene, how beautiful it is; it is too bad to bring 
a babbling town into this sacred place." He looked at me and said : "Mr. 
Blades, I want to make a bargain with you. If you will help me find a 
place to locate the eapitol, I will try to help you find a congregation." 1 
accepted his proposition. We proceeded to locate the eapitol on that 
beautiful spot by driving into the ground a stake cut with my pocket 
knife, and marking some small trees to identify the spot, and I learned 
afterwards that the place we agreed upon was the identical spot selected 
where the eapitol should stand, and where it now stands, both the tem- 
porary and permanent buildings. The Commissioners met the next day 
and after a careful examination of the grounds located the place for the 
eapitol. 

Mr. Glen expressed a wish that we could get something to eat, and I 



12 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 

told him that I left my horse down at the saw-mill, and he remarked that 
where there is a saw-mill there is always men, and usually there was 
something to eat. Following the lines back he went down with me, and 
we got there just before the horn blew for dinner. I introduced him to 
Mr. Page, and he was very cordially received. I remember we had pork 
and beans for dinner, and what else we had I don't know, but the "cheek" 
of Mr. Glen disclosed itself just as the dinner was over. He related to 
Mr. Page the incident of our meeting in the wilderness, and his proposi- 
tion to "help me find a congregation;" he said we had already found 
what we thought to be a good place for the capitol, and he thought right 
here was a good place for a congregation, "and (addressing Mr. Page), 
with your approval, I move that Mr. Blades give us a sermon right here 
and now." The motion was carried unanimously, and as it was always 
a motto of my life to obey orders when it is possible, I arose, gave out a 
hymn, which was sung from memory, and after a short prayer, I pro- 
ceeded to speak and preach to them the best I knew how for about twenty 
minutes, and this, so far as I know, was the first sermon preached in 
Lansing. Subsequently 1 was there in May. I had been invited to preach 
there Sunday morning, and a place had been selected over in +he woods 
under a big beech tree in the vicinity of the place where the capitol now 
stands. The ground chosen was soon cleared, the woods disappeared as if 
by magic, and it was not long before streets were being laid out and 
buildings began to rise preparatory to the convening of the first legisla- 
ture to meet in Lansing for the session of 1848. My father, William 
Blades, was the first Whig member ever elected from Genesee county to a 
seat in the State legislature, and he was a member of that session. 

I took Lansing in as a regular appointment on my circuit and visited it 
periodically. I had some privileges in and about the houses that entire 
strangers could not have. At this time my intimate personal friend, Wil- 
liam M. Fenton, was lieutenant governor, and Hon. Edwin H. Thompson 
of Flint was a senator; my relation with these gentlemen was as inti- 
mate and confidential as it was possible for men to be. To illustrate, I 
will tell a little story on Lieutenant Governor Fenton. My father was 
for a number of years justice of the peace in Grand Blanc, Genesee 
county, and had business with nearly every town in the county. Fenton 
came over from Fentonville to try the first case he ever had in court, 
which he lost. My father had an office built in his yard, and I persuaded 
him to let me have a bed in one corner. The day on which Fenton tried 
his case was rainy and cold, and I said to Fenton, "Bill, don't go home in 
the rain ; you had better stay and sleep with me, and go home in the morn- 
ing." He finally consented to do so. We went to bed, and after I had 
gone to sleep I was suddenly awakened, and was surprised to see Fenton 
standing in the middle of the floor, cussing himself. I said, "What is the 
matter?" He said, "I am a fool ; I forgot to call on the principal witness, 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 13 

and so lost the case." "Well," I said, "come back to bed and don't make a 
fool of yourself the second time the same day." 

I was in Lansing one day and went up to the Senate Chamber, and 
the first man I met was Senator Thompson, and he said to me : "Frank, 
Bill and I have put up a job on you ; we are going to pass a resolution re- 
questing you to preach before the State ofiicers and Senate." The resolu- 
tion was passed. I lay awake nights to prepare a sermon suitable for 
the occasion, but when the time came I sat there and looked down on 
that crowd of distinguished men — Governor Ransom and other men that 
I knew, and some who were strangers to me — and I laid my prepared 
sermon aside and turned to a passage in Romans, the first chapter and the 
sixteenth verse : "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for it is 
the power of God unto salvation ; to every one that believeth ; to the Jew 
first and also to the Greek," and for my sermon I said what was in my 
heart and what I fully believed, without thought of oratory, or what any- 
body might say or think of me or my sermon. For the first time since my 
determination to be a minister, after preaching this sermon, I had the 
approval of Hon. E. H. Thompson. He felt that I ought to practice law, 
as I had read law under his direction for some time, and only after this 
sermon did he say to me, "Frank, it is all right ; go ahead and do the best 
you can." 

The legislature of 1848 was not a phenomenal but rather a typical one. 
From the amount of plank-road charters granted it might have been 
called the "plank-road legislature." And that we may have a little clue 
from the past to look and see if we can find anything that has a parallel 
in our present civilization and experiences with legislatures, I will call 
your attention to one thing that transpired during that session. I think 
the charter for some railway, I do not now remember the title, provided 
that the principal offices and shops should be either in the State of Michi- 
gan or in the city of Adrian, and whether there was any other question 
involved I do not remember, but I think there was something about 
moneys past due from the railroad. Whatever legislation was sought to 
be secured was being engineered under the direction of the people who 
then had charge of what came to be known as the Lake Shore & Michigan 
Southern railroad. There was a great deal of opposition to the legisla- 
tion pending, and there was some very hard work being done in favor of 
it. It was then that I saw for the first time a gold pen, and they were 
very prominent on the desks of some of the members of both House and 
Senate. It so happened that my father, William Blades, was one of the 
members who was decidedly and bitterly opposed to the measure, what- 
ever it was, and after he had made as good a speech as he knew how to 
against the measure, a prominent member of the bar from Southern Mich- 
igan arose to answer him, and after a very lengthy argument in which he 
severely called down the gentleman from Genesee for his opposition, he 



14 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 

turned to the speaker, and in a very vehement manner said : ''Mr. 
Speaker, I want something, this legislature wants something from the 
gentleman from Genesee beside rhetoric ; I want facts, I want some tangi- 
ble evidence in support of his position, and reason for his opposition to 
this measure." It was at this moment that the gentleman from Genesee 
arose in his place and said : "Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman permit me 
to interrupt him just for a moment? He demands some facts, some tan- 
gible evidence. Permit me to say in reply, sir, that there is no gold pen 
on my desk." And in less than one minute there was not a gold pen to be 
seen on any desk in either the upper or lower house, nor could you find 
anybody who had seen one ! My recollection is that the measure did not 
prevail. In this I may be mistaken, as this was fifty-five years ago. Of 
course no such thing could possibly happen in a legislature in Michigan 
in this year of grace 1903. 

I remember well some incidents of the last night of that legislature. 
The House was waiting to hear from the Senate and time was hanging 
heavily on their hands. A little incident of the evening may amuse you 
for a moment. I think it is quite common at the close of a legislature for 
the members to look about for some boxes in which to pack certain per- 
quisites, the "aftermath" of the supplies for the session, in stationery, 
books, etc. Lansing was new and but few stores in the place. Empty 
boxes of the proper size were scarce, and one of the members, rather 
tardy, had to take what he could get, and this was three or four times as 
large as any of the rest, but even this was not large enough to pack a 
chair. It attracted attention, and finally a gentleman arose and made a 
motion that a certain, suspicious looking box then on the floor of the 
House be examined by a special committee appointed by the chair, which 
should make a prompt report to this House. The motion was carried, the 
gentleman making the motion was named chairman, and others selected 
to complete the committee. They sent for a hammer and opened the box, 
and scattered the contents about the floor, greatly exasperated the 
owner, who sat by in rage and disgust, but said nothing. In the box were 
found some soiled linen, some books and stationery, and a long piece of 
nice cord that had come around some packages during the winter, which 
he had saved for a cord for his boy's sled. When the committee had fin- 
ished the examination, they made a report, recited the contents of the 
box and facetiously called attention to the cord and begged to be ex- 
cused from further acquaintance with said cord. This was the opening 
for the owner of the box, who arose and protested against granting the 
request of the committee to be excused from further acquaintance with 
the said cord, claiming that the only proper use for it was to hang the 
chairman of that committee. And then such a discussion for over an hour ! 
They fired off their oratory and raised their points of order and constitu- 
tional questions while they waited to hear from the Senate as to final 



DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE P'OR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 15 

adjournment. The owner of that box got even with his persecutors before 
it was over. 

In the Senate Hon. N. G. Isabel of Livingston county was the only 
Whig member of that body. If my memory serves me, the legislature 
met Monday, January third, and on Saturday, New Year's day, there was 
a preliminary meeting of some kind of the members of the Senate who 
were in town to arrange for the organization of the Senate on Monday. 
As the story goes. Senator Balch gave notice that the Democratic mem- 
bers of the Senate would meet to select officers for that body, and ex- 
pressed a hope that every Democratic member of the Senate would be 
present. As he sat down. Senator N. G. Isabel arose, and in a very grave 
and dignified manner, gave notice that the Whig members of the Senate 
would meet in his room at the hotel to caucus on the officers for the Sen- 
ate and hoped every member would be present. As he sat down it dawned 
on the dazed majority that Isabel was the only Whig member of the Sen- 
ate, and they saw his joke; they gathered around him, shook him by the 
hand, and from that hour he had a warm friend in every other member. 
On such little things often hangs the success or failure of public men. 



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